When you walk into Ted's Brooklyn brownstone, where he lives with his interior-designer husband, Barry Rice, the first thing you see are cookbooks. Lots of them. Ted approaches cookbooks the way some people approach art: He is constantly searching for great undiscovered works, and he's proud to put them on display. He says they make for great dinner-party conversation. And he is quick to point out that owning a bunch of cookbooks earns you some cool points these days. "Knowing about food is an important part of being an urbane, sophisticated man," he says with a laugh.